Lionel Pigot Johnson (15 March 1867 - 4 October 1902) was an English poet, essayist and literary critic.

Life Edit

Johnson was born at Broadstairs, Kent, the son of an Irish army officer.  He was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, graduating in 1890. He became a Catholic convert in 1891.^[1] He lived a solitary life in London, struggling with alcoholism and his repressed homosexuality.^[2][3] He was one of the Rhymer's Club, and cousin to Olivia Shakespear.

In 1892, Johnson converted to Catholicism. He repudiated former friend Oscar Wilde and directed a sonnet at him called "The Destroyer of a Soul" (presumably the soul of his cousin Lord Alfred Douglas, whom he had introduced to Wilde the previous June). In the following year, Johnson wrote what some consider his masterpiece, "The Dark Angel".^[2][4]

He died of a stroke after a fall in the street, though some claimed it was a fall from a barstool.^[2] Ezra Pound alludes to the rumor in his poem, "Siena Mi Fe, Discfecemi Maremma", printed in Hugh Selwyn Mauberley:

Writing Edit

The Columbia Encyclopedia says that, "As a whole Johnson's poetry is spare and austere, often spiritual in content and deeply emotional.^[5]

Recognition Edit

His poem "Sir Walter Raleigh in the Tower" won the Queen's Gold Medal for English Verse at Winchester College in 1885.^[6]

Louis Untermeyer included two of his poems, "Mystic and Cavalier" and "To a Traveller," in Modern British Poetry (1920).^[7]

"The Dark Angel" served as one of the influences for the Dark Angels chapter of Space Marines in the Warhammer 40,000 fictional universe. Their Primarch, Lion El'Jonson, is also named after the poet.^[8][9]

Publications Edit

PoetryEdit

• Sir Walter Raleigh in the Tower. Chester, UK: Phillipson & Golder, 1885.
• Poems. London: Elkin Mathews, 1895; Boston: Copeland & Day, 1895.
• Ireland, with other poems. London: Elkin Matthews, 1897; Poole, UK, & New York: Woodstock Books, 1996.
• Twenty-one Poems Written by Lionel Johnson (selected by William Butler Yeats). Dundrum, Ireland: Dun Emer Press, 1904; Portland, ME: Thomas B. Mosher, 1908; Shannon, Ireland: Irish University Press, 1971.
• Selections from the Poems of Lionel Johnson (introduction by [[Clement King Shorter). London: Elkin Mathews, 1908.
• Some Poems of Lionel Johnson, newly selected (selected with introduction by Louise Imogen Guiney). London: Elkin Mathews, 1912.
• The Poetical Works of Lionel Johnson. London: Elkin Matthews, 1915; New York: Macmillan, 1915.
• The Religious Poems of Lionel Johnson (preface by Wilfrid Meynell). London: Elkin Mathews / Burns & Oates, 1916; New York: Macmillan, 1916.
• A New Selection from the Poems of Lionel Johnson. London: Elkin Mathews & Marrot, 1927.
• The collected poems of Lionel Johnson (edited by Ian Fletcher). London: Unicorn Press,1953; New York: Garland, 1982.
• Three Poets of the Rhymers' Club: Ernest Dowson, Lionel Johnson, John Davidson (edited by Derek Stanford). Cheadle, UK: Carcanet Press, 1974.

ProseEdit

• The Gordon Riots. London: Catholic Truth Society, 1893.
• The Art of Thomas Hardy. London: Matthews and Lane, 1894. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1894.
  • new edition (with a chapter on Hardy's poetry by J.E. Barton). London: John Lane, 1923.
• Post Liminium: Essays and critical apers (edited by Thomas Whittemore). London: Elkin Mathews, 1911; New York: M. Kennerley, 1912; Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1968.
• Reviews and Critical Papers (edited by Robert Schafer). London: Elkin Mathews, 1921; New York: E.P. Dutton, 1921; Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1966.

LettersEdit

• Some Winchester Letters of Lionel Johnson London: George Allen & Unwin / New York: Macmillan, 1918.
• Some Letters to Richard Le Gallienne. Edinburgh: Tragara Press, 1979.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.^[10]

See alsoEdit

• List of British poets

ReferencesEdit

• Lionel Pigot Johnson: a biography Richard Whittington-Egan, Rivendale Press
• At the Heart of the 1890s: Essays on Lionel Johnson Gary Paterson, AMS Press (2008)

NotesEdit

External linksEdit

Poems

• "July"
• "The Dark Angel"
• Lionel Johnson in Modern British Poetry: "Mystic and Cavalier," "To a Traveller"
• Lionel Pigot Johnson at PoemHunter (16 poems).

About

• Lionel Johnson in the Oxford Companion to Irish Literature.